CUL 
CUM 
C U P 
These larvae retain their form during a fort- 
night or three weeks, after which period they 
turn to chrysalids. All the parts of the 
winged insect are distinguishable through the 
outward robe that shrouds them. The chry- 
salids are rolled up into spirals. The situa- 
tion and shape of the windpipe is then alter- 
ed ; it consists of two tubes near the head, 
which occupy the place of the stigmata, 
through these the winged insect is one day r 
to breathe. These chrysalids, constantly on 
the surface of the water in order to draw 
breath, abstain now from eating ; but upon 
the least motion are seen to unroll them- 
selves, and plunge to the bottom, by means 
of little paddles situated at their hinder part. 
After three or four days of strict fasting,, they 
pass to the state of a gnat. A moment before, 
water was its element ; but now it becomes an 
aerial insect, he can no longer exist in it. 
He swells his head, and bursts his inclosure, j 
The robe he lately wore turns to a ship, of j 
which the insect is the mast and the sail. If' 
at the instant when the gnat displays his wings 
there arises a breeze, it proves to him a dread- 
ful hurricane ; the water gets into the ship, and 
the insect, who is not yet loosened from it, 
sinks, and is lost. Rut in calm weather, the 
gnat forsakes his slough, dries himself, dies 
into the air, and seeks to pump the alimentary 
juice of leaves, or the blood of men and 
beasts. The sling which our naked eye dis- 
covers, is but a tube, containing live or sixspi- 
cula of exquisite minuteness ; some dentated 
at their extremity like the head of an arrow, 
Olliers sharp-edged like razors. These spi- 
cula, introduced into the veins, act as pump- 
suckers, into which the blood ascends by rea- 
son of the smallness of the capillary tubes. 
The insect injects a small quantity of liquor 
into the wound, by which the blood becomes 
more fluid, and is seen through the micro- 
scope passing through those spicula. The 
animal swells, grows red, and does not quit 
his hold till it has gorged itself. The liquor 
it has injected causes by its irritation that 
disagreeable itching which we experience ; 
and which may be removed by volatile al- 
kali, or by scratching the part newly stung, 
and washing it with vinegar. Rubbing one’s 
self at night with fullers’ earth and water, 
lessens the pain and inflammation. Gnats 
perform their copulation in the air. \ he fe- 
male deposits her eggs on the water, by the 
help of her moveable hinder part and her 
legs, placing them one by the side of another 
in the form of a little boat. This vessel, 
composed of two or three hundred eggs, 
swims on the water for two or three days, 
after which they. are hatched. If a storm 
arises, the boats are sunk. Every month 
there is a fresh progeny of these insects. 
Were they not devoured by swallows, other 
birds, and by several carnivorous insects, the 
air would be darkened by them.” 
Gnats in this country, however trouble- 
some they may be, do not make us feel them 
so severely as the musketo flies (culex pi- 
p.iens) do in foreign parts. Both day and 
night these come into the houses; and when 
the people are gone to bed, they begin their 
disagreeable humming, approach always 
nearer to the bed, and at last suck up so 
much blood that they can hardly fly away. 
The bite causes 'blisters in, people of a defi- 
Tate constitution. When the weather has 
Iwtu cool for some days, the musketoes dis- 
appear; but when it changes again, and espe- 
cially after rain, they gather frequently in 
such quantities about the houses, that their 
number is astonishing. In sultry evenings 
they accompany the cattle in great swarms 
from the woods to the houses or to town ; and 
when they are driven before the houses, 
the gnats fly in wherever they can. In 
greatest heat of summer, they are so nume- 
rous in some places, that the air seems to be 
quite full of them, especially near swamps 
and stagnate waters, such as {lie river Morris 
in New' Jersey. The inhabitants therefore 
make a fire before their houses to expel these 
disagreeable guests by the smoke. 
CULMINATION, in astronomy, the pas- 
sage of any heavenly body over the meri- 
dian, or its greatest altitude for that day. See 
Globes, use of. 
CULPRIT, "is not (as is vulgarly imagined) 
an opprobrious name given to the prisoner 
before he is found guilty, but it is the reply 
of the clerk of arraigns to the prisoner, alter 
1 he had pleaded Not Guilty; which plea was 
antiently entered upon the minutes in an 
abbreviated form, non cut’; upon which the 
clerk of the arraigns, on behalf of the crown, 
replies that the prisoner is guilty, and that 
he is ready to prove him so; which is done 
by a like kind of abbreviation, cul’prit, signi- 
fying that the king is ready to prove him 
guilty (from cul, that is, culpabilis, guilty; 
and pi it, priestosuni, lam ready to verify it). 
4 Black. 339. 
CULM, or Culmus. See Botany. 
CULTURE of lands. See Husbandry. 
CULVER IN, a long slender piece of ord- 
nance or artillery, serving to carry a ball 
to a great distance. Manege derives the 
word from the Latin colubrina; others from 
coluber, “ snake either on account of the 
length and slenderness of the piece, or of the 
ravages it makes. There are three kinds of 
culverins, viz. the extraordinary, the ordi- 
| nary, and the least-sized. 1 . The culverin 
extraordinary has 54 inches bore; its length 
32 calibers, or 13 feet; weighs 4800 pounds; 
its load above 12 pounds; carries a shot 5-J 
inches diameter, of twenty pounds weight. 
2. The ordinary culverin is 12 feet long; 
carries aball of 17 pounds 5 ounces; caliber 
54 inches; its weight 4500 pounds. 3. The 
culverin of the least size has its diameter 5 
inches; is 12 feet long; weighs about 4000 
pounds; carries a shot 3^ inches diameter, 
weighing 1 4. pounds 9 ounces. 
CULVER’ TAIL, among shipwrights, 
signifies the fastening or letting of one timber 
into another, so that they cannot slip out, as 
the corlings into the beams ot a ship. 
CUM1NUM, cummin, a geitus of the di- 
gynia order, in the pentandria class of plants, 
and in the natural method ranking under the 
45th order, umbellatai. The fruit is ovate 
and striated; there are four partial umbels, 
and the involucra are quadrifid. There is 
but one species, viz. the cyminum. It is an 
annual plant, perishing soon after the seed 
is ripe. It rises nine or ten inches high in 
the warm countries, where it is cultivated, 
but seldom rises above four in this country. 
It has sometimes flowered very well here, 
but never brings its seeds to perfection. r l he 
leaves are divided into long narrow segments, 
like those of fennei, but much smaller: they 
are of a deep green, and generally turned 
backward at their extremity. The flowers 
4. 
4Gg 
grow in small umbels at the top ofthe stalks: 
they are composed of live unequal petals, ot 
a pale blueish colour, which are succeeded 
by long, channeled, aromatic seeds. '1 he 
plant is propagated for sale in the island ot 
Malta. The seeds have a bitterish warm 
taste, accompanied with an aromatic flavour, 
not of the most agreeable kind. I hey are 
retained in the revised Pharmacopoeia ot the 
college, particularly in the emplastrum cu- 
mini. 
CUNICULUS, in mining, a term used 
by authors in distinction from puteus, to ex- 
press the several sorts of passages and ci ts 
in these subterranean works. ’1,'he cuniculi 
are those direct passages in mines where 
they walk on horizontally ; but the patei are 
the perpendicular cuts or descents. 'I he mi- 
ners in Germany call these by the name 
stollen and schachts; the first word express- 
ing the horizontal, and the second the per- 
pendicular cuts. 
CUNILA, in botany, a genus of the mo 
nogynia order, in the monandria class of 
plants, and in the natural method ranking, 
under the 42d order, verticillata*. 1 he co- 
rolla is ringent, with its upper lip erect and 
plain; there are two filaments, castrated,. or. 
wanting antherai; the seeds are four. There 
are four species, none of which has any re- 
markable property. 
CUNNINGHAMIA, a- genus of the te- 
trandria monogynia class and order. 'J he 
calyx is four-toothed; the corolla tour-cleft, 
with a short tube; berry crowned with a 
two-seeded nut. There is one species. 
CUNONIA, a genus of the digynia order, 
in the decandria class- of plants, and in the' 
natural method ranking with those of wh’ifln 
the order is doubtful. The corolla is penta- 
petalous; the calyx pentaphyllous ; the cap- 
sule bilocular, acuminated, polyspermous ; 
the styles longer than the flower. There is- 
one species, a native of the Cape. 
CUOGOLO, in natural history, the name 1 
of a stone much used by' the Venetians in 
glass-making, and found in the river Feshio. 
It is a small stone of an impure white, of a- 
shattery texture, and is of the shape of a: 
pebble. 
CUP-gr/?/y,in natural history, a name give m 
by -authors to a very singular kind of galls, 
found on the leaves of the oak and some 
other trees. They are of the figure of a cup, 
or drinking-glass without its foot, being re- 
gular cones adhering by their point or apex 
to the leaf; and the top or broad part is hol- 
lowed a little wav, so that it appears like a 
driuking-glass with a cover, which w as made 
so small as not to close flat the month, but fall, 
a little way into it. This cover is flat, and has 
in the centre a very small protuberance, re- 
sembling the nipple of a woman’s breast. 
This is of a pale green, as is also the whole of 
the gall, excepting only its rim that runs 
round about the top: this latter is of a scarlet 
colour, and that very beautiful.. See Cy~ 
NIPS. 
CUPANIA, a genus of the monadelpjiia. 
order, in the monoccia class of plants, ana in. 
the natural method ranking under the 38th. 
order, tricoccax The calyx of the male is 
triphvllous; the corolla pentapetalous ; the 
stamina five. The calyx of the female is tri- 
phvllous; the corolla tKpetalous; the style* 
trilid ; and a pair of seeds. There are three.- 
